I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 400 

To require the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United 

States Agency for International Development to submit reports on definitions of placement and recruitment fees for purposes of enabling compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 16, 2015 

Mr. ROYCE (for himself and Mr. ENGEL) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of State and the Administrator 

of the United States Agency for International Development to submit reports on definitions of placement and 

recruitment fees for purposes of enabling compliance with 

the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This bill may be referred to as the ‘‘Trafficking Pre5 vention in Foreign Affairs Contracting Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The Department of State and the United 

4 States Agency for International Development 

5 (USAID) rely on contractors to provide various serv6 ices in foreign countries such as construction, secu7 rity, and facilities maintenance. 

8 (2) In certain cases, such as where the employ9 ment of local labor is impractical or poses security 

10 risks, Department of State and USAID contractors 

11 sometimes employ foreign workers who are citizens 

12 neither of the United States nor of the host country 

13 and are recruited from developing countries where 

14 low wages and recruitment methods often make 

15 them vulnerable to a variety of trafficking-related 

16 abuses. 

17 (3) A January 2011 report of the Office of the 

18 Inspector General for the Department of State, 

19 while it found no evidence of direct coercion by con20 tractors, found that a significant majority of their 

21 foreign workers in certain Middle East countries re22 ported paying substantial fees to recruiters that, ac23 cording to the Inspector General, ‘‘effectively re24 sulted in debt bondage at their destinations’’. Ap25 proximately one-half of the workers were charged re26 cruitment fees equaling more than six months’ salVerDate Sep 11 2014 17:33 Jan 24, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H400.IH H400

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1 ary. More than a quarter of the workers reported 

2 fees greater than one year’s salary and, in some of 

3 those cases, fees that could not be paid off in two 

4 years, the standard length of a contract. 

5 (4) A November 2014 report of the United 

6 States Government Accountability Office (GAO–15– 

7 102) found that the Department of State, USAID, 

8 and the Defense Department need to strengthen 

9 their oversight of contractors’ use of foreign workers 

10 in high-risk environments in order to better protect 

11 against trafficking in persons. 

12 (5) The GAO report recommended that those 

13 agencies should develop more precise definitions of 

14 recruitment fees, and that they should better ensure 

15 that contracting officials include prevention of traf16 ficking in persons in contract monitoring plans and 

17 processes, especially in areas where the risk of traf18 ficking in persons is high. 

19 (6) Of the three agencies addressed in the GAO 

20 report, only the Department of Defense expressly 

21 concurred with GAO’s definitional recommendation 

22 and committed to defining recruitment fees and to 

23 incorporating that definition in its acquisition regu24 lations as necessary. 


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1 (7) In formal comments to GAO, the Depart2 ment of State stated that it forbids the charging of 

3 any recruitment fees by contractors, and both the 

4 Department of State and USAID noted a proposed 

5 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule that pro6 hibits charging any recruitment fees to employees. 

7 (8) However, according to GAO, neither the 

8 Department of State nor USAID specifically defines 

9 what constitutes a prohibited recruitment fee: ‘‘Con10 tracting officers and agency officials with monitoring 

11 responsibilities currently rely on policy and guidance 

12 regarding recruitment fees that are ambiguous. 

13 Without an explicit definition of the components of 

14 recruitment fees, prohibited fees may be renamed 

15 and passed on to foreign workers, increasing the risk 

16 of debt bondage and other conditions that contribute 

17 to trafficking.’’. 

18 (9) GAO found that, although Department of 

19 State and USAID guidance requires their respective 

20 contracting officials to monitor compliance with traf21 ficking in persons requirements, they did not con22 sistently have specific processes in place to do so in 

23 all of the contracts that GAO sampled. 


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1 SEC. 3. REPORTS ON DEFINITION OF PLACEMENT AND RE2 CRUITMENT FEES AND ENHANCEMENT OF 

3 CONTRACT MONITORING TO PREVENT TRAF4 FICKING IN PERSONS. 

5 (a) DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORT.—Not later 

6 than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

7 the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate 

8 committees of Congress a report that includes the matters 

9 described in subsection (c) with respect to the Department 

10 of State. 

11 (b) USAID REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 

12 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

13 of the United States Agency for International Develop14 ment (USAID) shall submit to the appropriate committees 

15 of Congress a report that includes the matters described 

16 in subsection (c) with respect to USAID. 

17 (c) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The matters de18 scribed in this subsection are the following: 

19 (1) A proposed definition of placement and re20 cruitment fees for purposes of complying with sec21 tion 106(g)(iv)(IV) of the Trafficking Victims Pro22 tection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)(iv)(IV)), in23 cluding a description of what fee components and 

24 amounts are prohibited or are permissible for con25 tractors or their agents to charge workers under 

26 such section. 


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1 (2) An explanation of how the definition de2 scribed in paragraph (1) will be incorporated into 

3 grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and con4 tracting practices, so as to apply to the actions of 

5 grantees, subgrantees, contractors, subcontractors, 

6 labor recruiters, brokers, or other agents, as speci7 fied in section 106(g) of the Trafficking Victims 

8 Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)). 

9 (3) A description of actions taken during the 

10 180-day period preceding the date of submission of 

11 the report and planned to be taken during the one12 year period following the date of submission of the 

13 report to better ensure that officials responsible for 

14 grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements and 

15 contracting practices include the prevention of traf16 ficking in persons in plans and processes to monitor 

17 such grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements 

18 and contracting practices, particularly as such agree19 ments and contracting practices relate to areas of 

20 the world in which the risk of trafficking in persons 

21 is high. 

22 (d) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS.—In 

23 this section, the term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con24 gress’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 


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1 House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 

2 Relations of the Senate. 

3 SEC. 4. DEFINITION. 

4 In this Act, the term ‘‘trafficking in persons’’ has the 

5 meaning given the term in section 103(9) of the Traf6 ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 

7 7102(9)). 

Æ 


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